You Never Know
by Ivy123
Summary: After the war Anko's psyche is shaken up and she refuses to go outside. So Kurenai and a couple of other people decide to help... Post-war


**_A/N: I made up an ending for the war, so the real one will be probably different. This is my first story to be posted here. I hope you'll like it. And I'd be really happy about some reviews._**

* * *

So, actually my life has become shit. I'm lieing around in my apartment, stuffing myself with dango an doing nothing. Kurenai visits me every few days, but though she's my best friend she isn't able to force my out of my apartment. Her child is really cute, it's a little boy. Hm...Actually quite many people have paid me visits in the last two months. Of course there's Kurenai with her child. Kotetsu, Izumo and Genma drop by from time to time too. That's normal, we're friends. But what's kinda weird is that sometimes Kurenai drags along this guy called Shikamaru Nara. He's with her every second time. I mean, I don't even know this guy. Of course I know, why he visits Kurenai, he was Asuma's student and wants to take care of his son, but why does this guy visit _me_? And this isn't everything. Sometimes Shikamaru even brings his best friend Chouji Akimichi (the only thing I know about him is that he freaks out if you dare to call him fat). And since they are two members of a team of three, the third team-member Ino Yamanaka often comes into my apartment looking for them. No offense, but I don't like that girl. Her voice is shrill and and she talks for hours about the most uninteressting gossip she can come up with. I know the whole thing has already become highly ridiculous up to this point, but when Shikamaru brought a girl with him called Temari, I was near crazy laughing. Apparently, she's Suna's ambassador in Konoha and Shikamaru is Konoha's in Suna. She's the Kazekage's sister. So all in all, on crowded days, ten people are sitting in my living roon and I don't know half of them.

This has been going like this for two months now. And I really have now clue why, but today I felt the need to go outside. My cloak was ripped two months ago and not even I am comfortable while walking around in plain fishnets. So what shall I wear? I'm rummaging in my closet. Great, I have about twenty different fishnet suits stored there and about fifteen skirts, but I have never bothered to buy another cloak. And I haven't many other clothes. Great, just great. In the end I settle with a purple T-shirt and my usual skirt with fishnet leggings. I almost leave my forehead-protector at home, but reconsider it when looking into the mirror. I look almost like I did, when I got my Juin. Which is gone now, by the way. So I put my forehead-protector back on again. For other people I might look still the same, but for me it changes everything. I'm not Anko the little girl that is tormented by her sensei anymore, but Anko the Tokubetsu Jo-Nin, who couldn't stand up to Orochimaru or Kabuto, but at least survived, unlike so many others. Yeah, that sounds kinda crazy, but that's the way I am.

While leaving my apartment I've got a strange feeling. But I can't quite put my finger on it. Describing it like „And I knew a new chapter of my life had begun." would be far too intense. But saying „I was just shocked by the great amount of really fresh air." wouldn't fit either. I guess, the truth is somewhere in between.

The door is closing with a loud thud. I'm turning my head up to the sky. It isn't a very sunny day, but it isn't very cloudy either. It isn't hot and it isn't cold. There is wind, but it isn't very strong. I like that weather. It's calming. Since I'm outside now, there is a new question coming up: Where shall I go? I haven't realized it til now, but that one is easy to answer. I'll walk without a destination. It's pretty crowded, everywhere are people. Most of them seem to know each other, they are chatting and laughing. Children are running around. I got used to being the only one walking alone. I'm passing the sweet shop. I won't buy anything today, since I don't feel the urge to carry the heavy sweet boxes with me. But I have to admit, the new kind of dango shown in the window does look yummy. I guess, I'll buy two or three boxes later. Since I'm the No.1 customer of the shop, I get low prices, if I buy a great amount of dango. Not far from the sweet shop there is Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto Uzumaki is sitting there and stuffing himself with ramen. Everywhere around him are piles of empty bowls. Looks like Ichiraku Ramen rewards their No.1 customer too. Or maybe he just gets ramen for free, because he saved the world not long ago. Seems like a fair deal to me. I consider saying hello and congratulating him to saving the world, but when I remember this guy calling me „crazy snake-lady" and shouting at everyone at the Chu-Nin exams, I decide to walk past Ichiraku Ramen. I notice I'm taking the way I always went, when going to training as a child. Training...

„_So tell me about you: name, likes, dislikes, dream. I'll show you how: Hello, I'm your new teacher Orochimaru, I like snakes and I don't like cold food. My dream is to collect every ninjutsu in the world. So, Anko, go first."_

„_I'm Anko Mitarashi. I like dango, and I don't like spicy food of any kind. My dream is to become a great ninja just like Orochimaru-sensei."_

_A great ninja just like Orochimaru-sensei... _I'm smiling bitterly. _Orochimaru ruined my life._ My psychic condition became strange, when I received my Juin and, but the thought of killing Orochimaru always made me go on. After he died I hunted down Kabuto. And now my Juin is finally gone and my psychic condition is worse than ever. _Orochimaru has been watching me for a year. He has been inside me._ I swallow hard, trying not to vomit into the bushes like like I did when being told about this first. _He's finally gone. My Juin is gone. My life might be shit and I might have failed, but Orochimaru is gone, as well as Kabuto. And maybe my actions helped just a little bit._

* * *

_Meanwhile at Anko's apartement:_

„Anko?" Kurenai is knocking loudly against the door. Then she stopps. „If she was asleep, she would have woken up by now. That means: She went outside!" The group consisting of nine people is cheering loudly. Kotetsu and Izumo are high fiving. Ino's cheers cause everyone's eardrums to hurt, so Chouji sacrifices some chips to stop her by stuffing them into her mouth. Kurenai turns to Shikamaru.

„Your plan worked! Thank you, Shikamaru. I was really worried about Anko. She was always the one to force me to go outside, you know." Shikamaru smiles.

„It's okay. I think she would have gone outside without my plan sooner or later too." Temari punches his shoulder.

„Glad, your plan finally worked. The next part would have been mine, wouldn't it? And I don't think I would have managed to convince Gaara or Kankuro to help."

„I think you would have. And even if you didn't, I could've still asked Iruka, Aoba and Yamato for help. They might have been not that effective, because they are normal and Anko knows them well, but I think Guy and Lee would have driven her outside. And as last option we could have stillasked Naruto." Temari shudders at the thought.

„Why did you bother to think of a plan involving many people, anyway? Wasn't that far too troublesome?"

„Yeah, it was a drag, but I promised Asuma to take care of Kurenai. And now she's happy again, because we helped her friend." Temari is quite impressed of his statement, though she wouldn't admit it. She watches Kurenai whirling around with her son.

„I'm starving." Chouji complains. Ino finished his chips after being forced to „try" them and is now shocked, because she remembers her latest diet. Now Temari realizes that she has skipped lunch due to some meeting and is pretty hungry too. A thought comes to her mind. She grins.

„What about celebrating our success at Ichiraku's?", she group cheers again, apart from Ino who is still speechless with shock.

„And since Shikamaru is such a good person, he will pay everything.", Temari announces happily. The group cheers once again, this time Ino too. In her opinion she can screw her diet now, anyway. Kotetsu and Izumo start discussing what to order, with Genma interrupting them from time to time. Chouji is wondering, if you can get meat at Ichiraku's. Shikamaru didn't take part in the cheering. In fact he didn't reacted to Temari's announcement in any way.

„So let's go!" Temari grabs his arm and starts to drag him to Ichiraku's. He rolls his eyes.

„Troublesome."

Kurenai smiles.

* * *

_Back to Anko:_

I reached the wooden posts in the training area. A sudden breeze ruffels my hair. _This is where my life as a ninja began. _Not far from the wooden posts is the memorial stone. A great amount of new names has been carved into lately. I knew many of them. That's what life as a ninja is like. It's always clear to us. You might not return from your mission. And that's why I never really made plans for my future life. I might have died the next day. But my situation changed. I-

_Footsteps. _I turn around.

„Kakashi!"

„Anko. I'm surprised. Genma told me you'd refuse to leave your apartment since the war's end."

„And Izumo told _me _you'd be psychic unstable since the war's end."

„So are you."

„...Yeah." Silence. He's wearing his headband too, but he looks thin and somehow shaken up. But probably I look the same.

„So you still come here. After all this happened." „All this" contains Obito being alive, trying to kill him and Kakashi being forced to kill Obito. He doesn't answer and walks forward to put some flowers he brought with him beneath the stone.

„Those are for Rin. I couldn't save her. In the end I killed her, because I thought it was the least painful way for her. And for Obito. I ruined him. And for all the people who died because of him and Akatsuki. It was my fault." He doesn't talk to me, it sounds more like he's been coming here every day of the last two months to say this. His voice sounds dead. I don't know, if it's a good idea to say something against that, but I'll try.

„It isn't your fault alone. You couldn't know he was alive. And though lost Rin too, _you _didn't turn evil." Kakashi looks at me. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I think the hurt in his eye eased a bit.

„What are you doing here?"

„I don't really know. After spending two months in my apartment I wanted to go outside. I have no clue why I walked this way."

„We both have many memories tied to this place."- he points at the training area - „I suppose you were thinking of Orochimaru."

_Orochimaru... _

„_Well done, Anko! You're the first one of your group to master the Sen'nei Jashu. As a reward you may come with me to Umi no Kuni. You'll have an important task to fulfill."_

Kakashi is still watching me.

„Your Juin is gone now, isn't it? So why are you still unstable?" I laugh bitterly.

„Don't you think, that removing a Juin I had for fifteen years could shake me up a little bit? Or finding out, that Orochimaru has been watching me since Sasuke killed him from within my body?" He gasps. So he didn't know that.

„Orochimaru was inside you?" He looks digusted. Understandable.

„Yeah. I didn't even notice the difference. My Juin always hurt from time to time."

„That's horrible."

„Yeah. And because of that my life sucks now." Kakashi is silent for a moment. He seems to be thinking about something.

„But now your free of Orochimaru. You might be still unstable, but you'll improve. Your life will get better." We look at each other. I'm unable to come up with an answer. He seems to understand and takes a seat on one of the training posts. After a few seconds I join him. We're watching the memorial stone in a comfortable silence.

_Maybe he's right. Maybe my life will get better. Actually it's not that bad right now. Maybe everything will be normal again one day._

_You never know._


End file.
